Monday, October 27, 2014

Boston Bruins Round Up 10/20-10/27

10/21

Bruins vs. Sharks

W 5-3

This was a must win for the Bruins if you ask me. The Sharks are a good team with a whole lot of potential. It was an awesome game and had a play off type of feel. Both teams were batting and playing each other real hard. It was a fairly fought game till the 3rd period when Campbell scored the go-ahead goal. The Bruins trailed going into the third due to the Sharks getting two late goals in the 2nd. I was worried about this because whenever you go into the locker room when trailing it can be hard to come back and grind out the win but the Bruins did just that. I thought that the Sharks were going to get beat when the Patrice Bergeron took a 4 minute penalty with 4 minutes left in the game but they were able to kill it off and get the win. Seth Griffith got his first gino of the season which was a nice goal and I think that should open the flood gates for him. Something that I'm sure was eating at Bruins fans watching the game was Logan Couture. Couture had 2 points against the Bruins and I'm sure as some of you may know, we passed up Couture in the 2007 draft for Zach Hamill... awesome. A guy who's not even playing anymore.

10/23

Bruins vs. Islanders

L 3-2

This game hurts to write about. I'm sure as you know, Chara tore a ligament in his knee after a hit on John Tavares. It was supposed to be a game about Johnny Boychuk's return to Boston, who got a great reaction from the crowd and the Bruins played a tribute to Johnny during a break in the game. It really sucked to see him in blue and orange. Unfortunately, big Z getting hurt overshadowed everything else. The Bruins were already without Kevan Miller who dislocated his shoulder while playing the Sabres. Miller is a solid d-man that plays a very defensive style. So now the Bruins are down 2 d-men. That was pretty much the worst possible scenario when the B's traded away Johnny. Losing their captain is never a good thing but at least before the trade we would have still had Boychuk who can help out with the work load. Instead, all eyes are on Dougie Hamilton to step up. He needs to become the player that everyone thought he would be when the Bruins drafted him. You can't rely too much on McQuaid or Seidenberg since they're both coming off injuries and Torey Krug doesn't quite have the defensive aspect that could make him a top defenseman. It was announced that Chara would not have surgery to repair the ligament in his knee that he tore, some guys can play on a bum knee and some guys need the surgery to fix it. Either way you look at it, Chara is going to come back and finish the season with a bum knee or he's going to get surgery that could put him out for the rest of the season. The problem the B's had during this game was that they didn't play a full 60 minutes, they were pretty much asleep for the first two periods. They didn't start playing Bruins hockey until the third and then getting closer and closer to the finish they really put their foot on the gas pedal. Unfortunately, that's not enough to win a game. You have to play the full 60. The Bruins were also facing their old back up tendy, Chad Johnson who played a great game and made some saves to keep the Isles in it.

10/25

Bruins vs. Maple Leafs

W 4-1

All eyes were on Dougie Hamilton in this one. Could he step up and take the work load that was left when Chara got hurt? He did just that. Hamilton got 3 points in this tilt, which is just what the Bruins needed from him. Hopefully he can keep it up. The whole D-corp stepped up in this game though. I think it was their best defensive effort of the season. That's what you want the D-unit to do when they lose their leader. You want the guys to come together and make up for it. The B's were playing within their system and playing to win it. Everyone was doing what they needed to do to get the win and that was just what they did. I think that if the Bruins lost to the Leafs I would have been really worried about losing Chara. Luckily that didn't happen.